Mental health professionals say watching the video has the potential to unlock emotional impact.
HARTFORD, Conn. — The graphic content in the Tire Nichols video released Friday night has raised concerns about how it might affect your mental health.
Dr. James O’Dea said that if you haven’t seen this video, please be aware of your ability and limitations to view and process it. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do, there are a few things to be aware of.
“It’s become so common to see black people being killed in movies that it’s hard for me to see something like this anymore,” said one woman, who did not want to be named. “I didn’t watch the video because it traumatized me.”
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Days after the release of the video of Tire Nichols, 29, brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers, some people were unable to watch it.
The video shows the chain of events that culminated in Thiel’s death three days later.
Mental health professionals say watching the video has the potential to unlock emotional impact.
“For some communities, especially people of color, watching another black American being brutalized by law enforcement can exacerbate feelings of loss of control, being in danger, anxiety, irritability,” Dr. James O’Dea said. .
Dr. O’Dea also said it has the potential to have the opposite effect.
“For some viewers, it runs the risk of aging people and making them start to feel desensitized to the experience,” Dr. O’Dea said.
For Josephine Mitchell, who has seen the video, that feeling is common.
FOX61 asked her if seeing the video posted affected her in any type of psychological way.
Mitchell replied that she wasn’t because I’ve seen it many times.
Like Eric Garner and George Floyd in 2014, both deaths were caught on camera.
“Especially in a video image, it enters the brain in a different way than reading it in a newspaper or an article,” Dr. O’Dea said.
Dr James O’Dea also said if you watched the video take care of yourself. Get help if you need it, limit your screen time, and lean on the community.
DeAndria Turner is a multimedia reporter for FOX61 News.she can be in dturner@fox61.com.
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